Rim Width

JT w/a JL

New member
I'm looking at upgrading rims/tires and trying to decide on the rim width to go with. Decided on 315/70/r17 Coopers for the wheels, but I'm not sure if I should go for the 17x9.5 or 17x8.0. What are the advantages of wider vs thinner rims? From my understanding, a thinner rim would allow you to air down the tires while still maintaining the bead. Not sure of the advantages outside of that.

As far as my driving, I live in Houston and will spend 98% of my time on pavement, not trying to fool myself or anyone else. I might see some mud trails in the Houston area and a few rock hills in the Austin area, if I ever make it out there. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
For a 12.50 wide tire, a lot of tire shops will tell you that you need to be running a 9" wide wheel. Going narrower will help to hold your bead on better and back in the day, we used to do this all the time and called it a poor mans beadlock. That being said, I personally don't think you could go wrong with 8" or 9" for the size tire you're wanting to run or at least, in terms of how you plan on using it. If there is a disadvantage to going narrower, it'd be that your tire shop may not want to install the tires you want on them. Of course, this is a shop to shop thing.
 

JT w/a JL

New member
Thanks for that. I ended up ordering the 17x9.5, but since I've had to wait so long, I've started to reconsider my tire choice. I'm looking for more of an on-road AT tire and ran into the Hankook Dynapro atm rf10 in D2. It's right around the same price as the Cooper AT/3 I was considering, but, to me, it's a little more aggressive looking and from my understanding, the D should give me a more comfortable ride on road (is this correct?). Any thoughts?

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